EMILY’s List Releases Top Five Targets For 2012

Editor’s Note: This piece was updated at 11 AM Eastern to change Rep. Colin Peterson to Rep. Jim Oberstar. We regret the error.

The reelection video from President Obama yesterday may have been the official kickoff of the 2012 election season, but for me, it takes some of my favorite advocacy groups picking their key races to really get me excited about another election.

EMILY’s List, a group dedicated to supporting Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights, selected a set of five Republicans, each from different states, and each of whom have a major, Democratic woman candidate to have entered the race.

“These Republican freshmen ran saying they’d focus on jobs,” said EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock. “But when they got to office they pulled a bait-and-switch on voters. Instead of creating jobs, they’ve worked tirelessly on an anti-woman, anti-family agenda that takes away women’s rights and freedoms.

Seeing Cravaack’s name on the EMILY’s List action plan has especially sweet connotations for those of us who are pro-choice activists in Minnesota. Carvaack barely snuck into office riding a wave of anti-incumbency sentiment, as well as a large bag of money from anti-choice groups who attacked his predecessor, Democratic Rep. Jim Oberstar, incessantly over being “anti-life” because of his health care reform vote, despite the fact that in every other instance Peterson consistently voted against a woman’s right to choose.

Now, the Minnesota district is greatly unhappy with their new representative, and the time is ripe to get another Democrat back into the seat. If that seat switches into a pro-choice Representative’s hands after decades of it being held by an anti-choice politician, well, I just may have to thank the Susan B. Anthony List personally for opening up the door by pushing Peterson out.